WAEB (AM)

WAEB (790 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Allentown, Pennsylvania, and serving the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It airs a news-talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are on Alta Drive in Whitehall.

WAEB

Allentown, Pennsylvania United States
Broadcast area	Lehigh Valley
Frequency	790 kHz
Branding	NewsRadio 790 WAEB
Programming
Format	Talk radio
Affiliations	Premiere Networks C&B 24/7
Ownership
Owner	iHeartMedia, Inc. (iHM Licenses, LLC)
Sister stations	WAEB-FM WSAN WZZO
History
First air date	April 15, 1949 (76 years ago) (1949-04-15)
Call sign meaning	Allentown–Easton–Bethlehem
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	14371
Class	B
Power	3,600 watts (day) 1,500 watts (night)
Transmitter coordinates	40°39′37.4″N 75°30′48.7″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen live (via iHeartRadio)
Website	790waeb.iheart.com

By day, WAEB is powered at 3,600 watts. At night, to protect other stations on 790 AM from interference, it reduces power to 1,600 watts. It uses a directional antenna at all times, shifting from a two-tower array in the daytime to five towers at night. The transmitter is on Church Street near MacArthur Road (Pennsylvania Route 145) in Hokendauqua.^[2]

History

Top 40 hits

WAEB signed on the air on April 15, 1949.^[3] It was powered at 500 watts in the daytime and 1,000 watts at night. WAEB was an affiliate of ABC Radio.^[4] The studios were at 7th and Hamilton Streets. The call sign refers to the three major cities in the Lehigh Valley: Allentown, Easton and Bethlehem.

The station was sold to Rust Broadcasting in 1957. Under Rust ownership, it began a Top 40 format, playing hit music for the young people of the Lehigh Valley. Its slogan was Music Radio 79 WAEB. (It was a short distance on the AM dial from 770 WABC in New York City.) In 1961, WAEB added an FM sister station, WAEB-FM at 104.1 MHz. For the first few years, both stations simulcast WAEB's Top 40 format. WAEB-FM broke away from the simulcast in the late 1960s, airing an automated beautiful music format.

Adult contemporary and talk

By the 1980s, young people began to look for their music on the FM dial. That prompted WAEB to evolve into a hot adult contemporary format in 1983. By 1985, it was more of an older-leaning adult contemporary station with plenty of oldies on the playlist. In 1986, WAEB added evening syndicated talk shows, and overnight talk shows were added by 1989; it continued to air a mix of adult contemporary and oldies music during the day.

WAEB and WAEB-FM were sold to CRB Broadcasting in the late 1980s. In 1992, WAEB dropped its remaining music shows and made the transition to a news/talk format.

Changes in ownership

In 1995, WAEB and WAEB-FM were sold to Capstar along with 95.1 WZZO and 1470 WKAP. The stations all went to AMFM Broadcasting as a result of the Chancellor/Capstar merger in 1999.

AMFM later merged with Clear Channel Communications, which owned WODE-FM and WEEX. That put the company over the limit of stations in could own in the Allentown radio market. Clear Channel was forced to sell an AM and FM station to be under legal ownership limits. Clear Channel gave Nassau Broadcasting cash plus WODE-FM and WEEX in exchange for New Jersey stations WSUS, WNNJ, WNNJ-FM, WHCY, and a local marketing agreements with WDLC, and WTSX. As a result, WAEB, WAEB-FM, WZZO and WKAP became Clear Channel stations.

21st century

In January 2007, 1470 AM dropped its oldies format, switching to Christian radio programming with a change in its call letters to WYHM. In response, WAEB launched an Internet radio station playing oldies music on its web site. The oldies format has since returned to 1470, now WSAN.

On September 4, 2009, the northernmost tower mast of the station's five-tower antenna array located in Whitehall Township was toppled when a vandal or vandals cut the tower's guy-wires.^[5]

Programming

Weekdays on WAEB begin with a local information and interview program hosted by Bobby Gunther Walsh. The rest of the schedule is nationally syndicated talk shows from co-owned Premiere Networks: The Glenn Beck Radio Program, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Jesse Kelly Show, The Michael Berry Show and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.

On weekends, specialty shows are featured on money, health, travel, technology and the law. Syndicated weekend shows include Rich DeMuro on Tech, The Weekend with Michael Brown, The Ben Ferguson Show, Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham and Bill Handel on the Law, as well as repeats of weekday shows. Most hours begin with an update from Fox News Radio.

See also

• Media in the Lehigh Valley